Writer and portrait artist Thomas Leveritt took to the streets with an ultraviolet camera to reveal people’s sun damage under his special lens. The camera shows the not-yet-visible effects the sun has on skin.

Look at that man’s face. He was a truck driver for almost three decades and that’s why one side of his face looks like an elephant’s droopy ballsack. I don’t understand why you folks still lay out in the sun just to be a couple of shades darker for a few months knowing full well that you will probably look like beef jerky when you’re older.

I know one damn thing.

If I end up marrying some white dude who insists on tanning and he turns out to look like that when we get old while I’m still fresh as a daisy, trust and believe we will have the first divorce settlement based on wrinkles. I’m putting it in the pre-nup. Must use sunscreen and not do stupid white people shit like bake in the sun for funsies. Or watch Friends.

This man’s face is possibly the most compelling argument for wearing sunscreen. Every day, all day, and lots of it.

Truck driver Bill McElligott, 69, has unilateral dermatoheliosis, according to The New England Journal of Medicine. Essentially, ultraviolet A (UVA) rays transmitted through the window of his delivery truck have severely damaged the skin on the left side of his face during the 28 years he has spent driving on the job.

As a result, the left side of McElligott’s face looks roughly 20 years older than the right, the Toronto Star reports. The difference between the two sides of his face is so pronounced, even medical experts were shocked.

“We are used to seeing photo damage by the sun, photo aging, every day, but I was taken aback when I saw how one-sided this was,” said Dr. Jennifer Gordon, a dermatology expert who treated McElligott, in The Daily Telegraph.

Driving has been linked to an increased risk of skin cancer due to sun exposure through the windows, which do not filter UVA rays. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology concluded more cases involved the left arm and left side of the face, according to the CBC. [x]

The hole in the ozone was actually smaller in 2009 than it was in 2008. The size of the hole actually depends on weather. The hole was found over Antarctica in the 1980s and tends to form in August. It is at its biggest in late September or early October and recloses in December.

Quick overview: the ozone layer is important to us, because it shields us from harmful ultra-violet rays. The damage to the ozone layer is so bad, that experts estimate it won’t fully recover until the year 2075. The ozone layer filtering out the ultra-violet rays protects us from sunburns, skin cancer, and even cataracts.

It also protects vegetation from being overexposed and damaged. Pollutants are to blame for the hole, too. Most of the chemicals are being phased out under the Montreal Protocol of 1987. The chemicals linger in the atmosphere for years, though. This is a good example of the world coming together and solving a major environmental issue in a really short period of time. Hopefully we can do that again if we ever need to.

This is meant to be a warning to all of you young teenagers out there who think tanning is just a trend that won’t have any impact on your life later.

It’s an obvious fact that tanning can lead to skin cancer, but for many young people, since the purpose of tanning is to make them look better, sometimes the only approach you can take to try and get the danger through their heads is by showing them what their skin will look like in the future. So if you’re curious, take a visit to Google and look at how skin cancer affects you skin’s appearance. Imagine having really wrinkly, dry, and discolored skin at age 30. I’m sure no one wants to, but that’s the reality of sun damaged skin. But even that isn’t the end of it. The damage inside your body is much, much worse than the appearance your skin will have.

When making changes to your body of any kind, think of the possible risks, including regret. Just think before you do.

The 2 main factors behind ageing are 1) Smoking and 2) Sun Damage. As a make-up artist, day in and day out I have 40 year old women sitting in my chair telling me their biggest skin regret, was not looking after their skin in the sun.

Sun damage is VERY difficult to reverse, the only real treat that decreases the visability of sun spots are laser treatments and they are painful and don’t really work. If your skin is sun damaged it will always feel dry and hard.

SO!!! START NOW! Every morning before I apply my moisturiser I apply the bad boy above, a Soltan spray that’s factor 50 and UVA 5. UVA Protection 5 and factor 50 is NEEDED. I know loads of skincare have factor 20 spf built in but that is not strong enough. The soltan sprays and creams are available in any Boots and are 7 euro and are usually on a “Buy one, get one free” offer, so it’s a great bargain! =)

If you cannot get any Soltan products this link below has a list of sun products that have the best protection against sun damage =)

This is a 69-year-old man who drove a truck for 28 years, and was thus only exposed to the sun on the left side of his face. The New England Journal of Medicine offers a detailed medical description of his condition and recommends “the use of sun protection and topical retinoids [Vitamin A creams] and periodic monitoring for skin cancer.”